Registered Investment Advisor – Hampton Roads, Virginia

The Ultrarich Are Switching Citizenship in Droves

From Financial Advisor IQ we learn that “2,369 U.S. citizens and resident aliens have renounced their citizenship or terminated long-term-residency status so far in 2013.” It appears that a lot of these decisions are motivated by taxes.

Where are they going? “Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong their destinations of choice.”

The ultra-wealthy are not like the rest of us, tied down by a job or a home. They are globe-trotters and can move wherever they find a hospitable climate, government and tax environment.

Among high-profile “U.S. persons” who have handed over passports and green cards are Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin, oil-fortune heiress Isabel Getty and singer Tina Turner, notes Wealth-X. But the firm also says the U.S. isn’t the only tax regime the ultrawealthy want out of. Last year, French actor Gerard Depardieu pulled up stakes for Russia, supposedly for tax reasons. More recently, Bernard Arnault, by some measures the richest man in France, “reportedly applied for Belgian nationality which he subsequently withdrew after outcry in his home country,” says Wealth-X.